Residents call ‘nightmare road’ unsafe

ST. ESPRIT, N.S. — Liane Vetter knew immediately where to place the blame when a new washing machine delivered to her remote Cape Breton business arrived damaged.

“It was the road – it’s a nightmare road,” said the owner of St. Esprit Lake Wilderness Holiday, a rental cottage operation located about halfway between Grand River and Framboise on the St. Peters-forchu Road that is also known as the Fleur-delis Trail.

“The delivery driver was shocked by the roads and how just driving on it caused damage to the washer which we sent back. And my daughter got a cracked rim on her car from driving on the roads. Everybody around here can tell you how bad they are.”

Vetter’s business attracts visitors looking to get away from it all. The relatively remote location of her cottages doesn’t worry her. That’s one of the reasons her guests come to Cape Breton. Now she’s concerned that negative reviews about the area’s roads will keep potential tourists away.

“I have had guests from Colorado, from Ontario, from Halifax, from everywhere, and they have to use this road to get here,” said Vetter.

“The Fleur-de-lis Trail is supposed to be a tourist road. But the state of the road is unbelievable, it’s really unbelievable. Our guests are mad about the state of the road. This is no good.”

COMMUNITY EFFORT

The deterioration of the St. Peters-forchu Road is not a secret. The portion of the highway near St. Esprit is a regular fixture on the Canadian Automobile Association’s list of the worst roads in Atlantic Canada. This year, that section of road was ranked sixth on the annual CAA list. Two other Richmond County roads, a stretch of the St. Peters-forchu Road near Grand River and the nearby Loch Lomond Road, also made the top 10.

Jeanette Strachan has been a driving force behind the lobbying effort to remove those roads from the CAA rankings. Strachan serves as the meeting coordinator with the Fleur-de-lis Trail-st. Peters Forchu Road community group.

“The group was formed two years ago in an effort to have this road, which extends from Lower L’ardoise to Forchu, maintained,” explained Strachan.

“At that time, there was a stretch of road from Grand River to St. Esprit that was very dangerous to drive. With the help of the community, we were able to get approximately 600 potholes filled and that made the road safer to travel on.”

She said that most of those potholes are now back to the way they were before the reparations.

NEXT STEPS

Strachan said things appeared to be looking up in 2021 when then Nova Scotia transportation minister Lloyd Hines promised the province would pave a 7.5-km stretch between Grand River and L’archeveque. However, there was a change of government last summer and the paving commitment for the paving of the aforementioned section was reduced to a fourkm stretch. The work was recently put up for tender.

“It’s something, but it’s also nothing because it isn’t going to fix the problem,” said Strachan.

“That part (where the paving will take place) is bad, bad, but the really bad, bad part of the road is past where this year’s paving will be done. This side of Cape Breton Island has been neglected for years and that has to stop.”

The group has the support of Richmond MLA Trevor Boudreau but is now appealing for ministerial intervention. Earlier this week, Strachan sent a letter to the Transportation Minister Kim Maslund asking for an in-person meeting to discuss road conditions in the area.

“We insist that 21 km of this roadway east from Grand River be repaved as soon as possible,” she wrote.

Strachan also noted that the province did an incomplete job last year when it set out to cut back the trees and alder bushes that are encroaching upon the sides of the road.

“They stopped when they ran out of money,” she said.

“The alders make it really hard to see deer when they come out on the road because they’re hidden by the alders.”

Earlier this year, the Nova Scotia government announced that close to $500 million will be spent on the province’s roadway infrastructure in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Nova Scotia will cover about two-thirds of the cost while the federal government has committed the remainder of the funds.

Nova Scotia’s updated fiveyear highway improvement plan includes more than 150 major projects.